LCNL 061: the new objective presents ‘Interactions of Color’

This is a mix I’ve been keeping on deck for a slow period where I had a gap in the schedule, and I’m pleased to finally share it with you all. The second song comes from steve roden’s between yellow and white on one side. between blue and black on the other, and with all this talk about “the dress” I thought this seemed like a pretty serendipitous time to go live with this one. So, since everyone is thinking about the relativity of human sense perception, I named this mix Interactions of Color, swiped an image from Josef Albers book The Interactions of Color, and laid it out on a J-card template, just in case any of you out there feel like dubbing this onto a cassette and printing out the cover. Or, please, feel free to make a better one!

I’m not going to interview myself, so just a few words about what’s behind this mix. It was recorded in mid-December, and except for some minor edits and some trickery at the very beginning and very end, it was recorded live in one go. I utilized two different variable speed tape players, one with pitch control and the other with the ability to switch from side 1/2 to 3/4 in mid play, which on normal tapes has the effect of playing the flip-side backward. The players run into a Mackie mixer with two effects sends, connected to a Memory Man stereo delay/looper on one channel, and a chorus and freeze pedal on the other. This is my basic set-up for making mix tapes for friends, though I’m still not very adept at monitoring and cueing up the right spots quickly enough. I tried to keep it loose, therefore, and use more ambient or drone tapes as transitions when possible.

All the tapes come from my personal collections. Some are recent acquisitions, others I’ve accumulated over the last few years mostly buying tapes off friends, labels or artists I otherwise follow closely. Some come from tapes I’ve had lying around since middle and high school, while many of them I bought for a quarter or two at various thrift stores. It’s actually probably pretty easy to guess which is which. Because it’s all live and on the fly, and because I don’t usually plan these things out, I often relied on whatever song happened to come up on the tape, or transitioned from one tape to another based on random associations. Rapsodie Espagnol, French composer? Might as well follow it with Spanish composer, Paris Hiss. You get the idea. If it seems extra heavy on Italian experimental music, well, it is. It’s me, what were you expecting? I’ve got so many other great gems I’d like to share, so if this goes over well I’m looking forward to doing some more. Enjoy. (Joseph Sannicandro)